A web-feeding machine comprises a base framework and a pair of turntables suitably journalled thereon for rotation in a horizontal plane. Each turntable supports a web of material. Typically, the material is being supplied from one web, a running web, while material from the other web stands ready to be spliced to the running material when the running web is nearly spent. The ready material is "spliced" to the running material by a splicing assembly which overlaps and attaches the running material of the ready material and severs the running material from the running web. The two turntables are used alternately to provide a continuous supply of material to the festoon of a label-cutting apparatus. A splice-in-register control is electronically connected to the web-feeding machine to provide a splice-command signal to actuate the splicing assembly, taking into account the specific response time T associated with the splicing assembly which causes a delay before the splice is accomplished. A plurality of labels and corresponding registration marks are printed serially on the material. A registration mark is a readable index mark for each label printed on a contrasting background whereas a "whiteout" is a region on the label where there is no printing. In operation, the splice must also occur "in-register," i.e., the running material must overlap the ready material so that the label of the running material coincides or is in phase with the first label at the end of the ready material. The splice-command signal is provided by the control to compensate for the response time of the splicing mechanism so that the labels are in-register.
A whiteout usually appears at the end of the material when the web is nearly expanded. However, a whiteout can occur anywhere along the material if there had been a printing problem. In either case, the operator must shut down the machine. This involves a loss of production time and a loss of material. Although there are controllers that can accomplish a splice-in-register, they typically can do so only for material having labels of a specific length printed thereon and moving at a fixed speed through the machine, such as, for example, the auto sequence controller which has been available from the Champion Edison Company located in Edison, N.J. These requirements made the solution as costly as the problem itself. Furthermore, the operator had to determine when to enable the splice-command signal since these past controllers were not designed to recognize the end of the running web or an earlier printing problem by counting a predetermined number of successive whiteouts and then to automatically accomplish a splice-in-register in response thereto.